Top-ranked Auburn comes to drizzly Athens, Georgia this afternoon to play the Bulldogs in a game of squeaky floor. In a season where Georgia’s men’s hoops team has looked better than they have in a long time, it is unfortunate that the Auburn Tigers are very good at basketball.

Y’all, because I want to have all the data in the right place and formatted easily, I need you to know that while I am still very capable of saying things like “Location: West Opelika” and “Type of School: Middle” I will try to keep those to a minimum as the data is sacred.

Alright, so how good are these War Eagle Plainsmen Tigers? The numbers make me want to cry.

Auburn University (16-1, 4-0 SEC) – Kenpom #1

Basic Information

Location: Auburn, Alabama

Type of School: Public Land-Grant Research University

Mascot: Aubie the Tiger

Venue: Neville Arena

Head Coach – Bruce Pearl

Seasons at Auburn: 11

Auburn Record: 228-120

Other Head Coaching Jobs: Tennessee, Milwaukee, Southern Indiana (Division II)

Overall Record: 690-265

Regular Season Conference Championships: 9 (2 Auburn, 1 Tennessee, 2 Milwaukee, 4 Southern Indiana)

Conference Tournament Championships: 4 (2 Auburn, 2 Milwaukee)

NCAA Appearances: 14 (6 Auburn, 6 Tennessee, 2 Milwaukee)

Final 4 Appearances: 1 (Auburn)

Kenpom Style of Play

() = National Ranking per Kenpom

Offense

Adj. Efficiency: 131.3 (1)

Avg. Poss. Length: 17.0 (125)

Defense

Adj. Efficiency: 94.3 (15)

Avg. Poss. Length: 18.1 (301)

Tempo

Adj. Tempo: 68.1 (163)

Kenpom 4 Factors

() = National Ranking per Kenpom

Offense

Effective FG %: 58.9 (4)

Turnover %: 13.4 (4)

Off. Reb. %: 34.9 (44)

FTA/FGA: 30.2 (264)

Defense

Effective FG %: 43.9 (10)

Turnover %: 17.1 (207)

Off. Reb. %: 28.9 (133)

FTA/FGA: 35.6 (239)

Where Things Get Scariest

Auburn’s not a team that creates a lot of turnovers or draws a lot of fouls. As the team’s #1 overall rank might lead on, they’re just scary good shooters who pick their shots well and can bully you down low.

They have the 30th best 3P% nationally at 37.9, FIFTH best nationally at two-point attempts with 60.3% being scored. On the other side of the ball, their opponents are hitting 30.2 from three (39th best, defensively) and 43.3% of their twos (8th).

They’re the number four best blocking team in the country while having the fourth fewest percentage of their shots blocked. They’re number one nationally in protecting the ball in non-steal turnovers.

Auburn’s simply a great basketball team and I hate to say that out loud.

How can we stand a chance where they’re not totally great? Get them in foul trouble and stay out of it. You can’t always be picky about your shots against a team this defensively sound, so the ball movement better be crisp. Pray they all had too light of breakfasts.

But really though, two words that aren’t just “Go Dawgs!” this time:

Foul trouble.

GO DAWGS!